3.10 HBCUs, Black Greek Letter Organizations, and Black Education

Discrimination and segregation kept most African Americans out of white colleges, so they built their own. Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are schools founded mainly to educate Black students. Most were established after the Civil War.

The earliest HBCUs were private schools, often founded by white philanthropists and religious groups. Cheyney University in Pennsylvania began in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth. Wilberforce University in Ohio (1856) was founded with the help of leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and after the AME Church bought it in 1863 it became the first university fully owned and run by African Americans. After the war came schools like Fisk (1866), Howard (1867), Hampton (1868) and Tuskegee (1881).

Later HBCUs were public land-grant colleges. The Second Morrill Act (1890) said states receiving federal money for land-grant colleges had to either admit students regardless of race or create separate schools for Black students. Southern and border states chose separation, founding new Black land-grant colleges or designating existing ones. The course counts 18 HBCUs that resulted, and these '1890 schools' include many of today's public HBCUs.

HBCUs followed two main models, the same debate as Washington versus Du Bois (3.8). Fisk University stressed a liberal arts education, with subjects like literature, history, science and languages, to prepare leaders and professionals. Tuskegee Institute stressed vocational and industrial training in farming and trades, aimed at economic independence.

The required 1902 photo shows the scientist George Washington Carver with students in his Tuskegee laboratory. Carver's research on crop rotation and on crops like peanuts and sweet potatoes helped Southern farmers restore worn-out soil.

Until the Black Campus movement of the 1960s (1.1), HBCUs were the main providers of higher education for African Americans. They opened doors to professions like teaching, medicine, law and the ministry, which helped many families rise out of poverty and produced leaders in every field. They also became spaces for cultural pride, Black scholarship and activism, and they attracted students from across the diaspora, including Afro-Cubans and Puerto Ricans.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers, a student choir, toured the US and Europe starting in 1871 to raise money for their struggling school. They brought spirituals to audiences around the world, including a performance for Queen Victoria; the required source is an 1875 image of the group.

Black Greek-letter organizations (BGLOs) are fraternities and sororities founded by and for African American students, at HBCUs and at mostly white universities. The first, Alpha Phi Alpha, was founded at Cornell in 1906, and the first Black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, at Howard in 1908. Nine national groups are known together as the Divine Nine.

BGLOs gave members support in self-improvement, academic excellence and leadership, and a lifelong commitment to community service. The required 1964 photo shows members of Omega Psi Phi with baskets of canned food for charity.